For decades, as the rest of the country grew dramatically more ethnically and racially diverse, the Capital Region was an outlier. The newest waves of immigrants found other places to live — mostly metro areas with better and more dynamic economies.

But no longer.

The region is now being transformed by an influx of immigrants who are changing the face of the region, influencing the way we eat, shop — and perhaps even think. These newest Capital Region residents are as diverse as the world, as are the stories and reasons that brought them to upstate New York, yet nearly everyone agrees that the area's more vibrant economy, especially in the high-technology sector, is a driving force for the change.

Consider the numbers: From 2000 to 2012, the area's Asian population climbed 84.6 percent as the Hispanic population surged by 94.1 percent, according to a Capital District Regional Planning Commission analysis of census data. The region's non-Hispanic white population, meanwhile, was essentially stagnant during the period, meaning that nearly all of the area's growth is attributable to increases among minority groups.

For many of the area's new immigrants, the Capital Region is not their first home in the United States. "Most of the area's immigration growth is from people moving north from New York City," says Rocco Ferraro, executive director at the planning commission.

Yet many of the newcomers defy the most common immigrant stereotypes. Tired, huddled masses? Not quite.

A 2011 Brooking Institution study found that immigrants to the Capital Region are relatively high skilled and well educated. Indeed, census data shows that 24 percent of the region's foreign population has a graduate-level degree. These are people, then, who could chose to go anywhere — and they're choosing to come here.

"The immigrant that people tend to talk about is the low-skilled immigrant," says Matthew Hall, author of the Brookings report. "What we tried to show is that the immigrant population is more diverse than that."

The high education levels of immigrants to the Capital Region should reduce the commonly heard fear that the newcomers unduly burden social service providers. But it might intensify fears that immigrants are taking jobs that would otherwise go to native workers.

The report from Brookings, a Washington think tank, also says that more immigrants live in the U.S. than at any time in the nation's history, while the foreign-born population is approaching levels not seen since the early parts of the 20th century.

The Capital Region has 58,000 foreign-born residents, the census says, equal to nearly seven percent of the overall population. Among that group, 5,136 are from India, making it the most common country of birth, followed by China, with 5,160 residents, and Guyana, with 3,555.Many of those immigrants are also defying stereotypes by foregoing urban locations to instead settle in suburbia. Just look at Niskayuna, where 8.1 percent of the population is Asian, according to the 2010 Census, a percentage only topped in the Capital Region by the 13.2 percent of Asian residents in the village of Menands.

But urban centers remain the most confronted by the challengers of growing migrant populations. The Schenectady City School District, for example, is attended by students who collectively speak 30 different languages at home. Many of those children arrive at school speaking little or no English, placing them at an educational disadvantage from the get-go. But while those students eventually learn English, that's not always the case for their parents — meaning that communicating with those at home is often the most difficult challenge for the district, says Superintendent Laurence Spring.

But Spring also describes the district's diversity as an opportunity for its students. In an economy that's increasingly global, they're better prepared, he believes, for the broad range of cultures they'll encounter later in life.

Now, while a regional economy that has expanded beyond its state-government roots is a factor in the arrival of new immigrants, it might also be true that that diversity will in turn benefit the economy.Some researchers, including influential economist Richard Florida, argue that many of the workers (of all ethnicities) who drive economic growth want to live where there's diversity and, more importantly, tolerance. Those people, Florida says, migrate to places that seem more culturally exciting and interesting.

"The creative class people I study use the word (diversity) a lot," Florida writes in The Rise of the Creative Class, his 2002 book. "Diversity is something they value in all its manifestations."Another argument contends that a diverse global economy is best navigated by companies with a workforce that understands and is comfortable with different cultures — meaning that a company that wants to sell a product in India, for example, would seem to benefit by employing workers familiar with the country's culture.

To be sure, despite the region's recent changes, the Capital Region remains, by any measure, one of the least ethnically diverse of the nation's largest metropolitan areas. Nearly 84 percent of residents here are white, according to the census, a percentage that climbs to 94 percent in Saratoga County. Roughly eight percent of the region's population is black, while three percent is Asian and another four percent is Hispanic.

Compare this Tech Valley, then, to the remarkable diversity of California's Silicon Valley, where just 39 percent of the population is white and non-Hispanic.

Ferraro, at the Regional Planning Commission, says he always found the Capital Region's lack of diversity surprising, given its proximity to the polyglot New York City metropolitan area. But it's clear, he says, that economic forces are driving diversity increases that are likely to continue in future years.

The Capital Region, he predicts, will increasingly look much more like the rest of America.

We talked to some Capital Region newcomers about their experience transitioning from their home countries to the U.S. Read those stories here.